Furniture



Dec. 10, 1957 w. P. ROCKER ETAL 2,815,800

FURNITURE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 10, 1953 aka-2 WMZ BYdgzan at ATTORNEY) Dec. 10, 1957 Filed April 10, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 a; /Zf7 7 if if INVENTORS W 41/. MM,

Wham), amt fl Mm ATTORNEYS FURNITURE William P. Rocker and Robert W. Schwab, Jr., Atlanta,

Ga., assignors to Southern Spring Bed Company, Atlanta, Ga., a corporation of Georgia Application April 10, 1953, Serial No. 348,032

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-194) This invention relates to furniture construction and, in particular, to furniture which can be easily assembled and disassembled.

Items of certain conventional furniture, such as sofas and lounge chairs, are characterized by their general clumsiness and difiiculty in moving. As is well recognized in the furniture industry, shipping of finished furniture entails considerable expense and difficulty. Furniture being rather bulky, it has been necessary heretofore to separately crate and pack each unit. To a limited extent furniture has been shipped in a knocked-down form but this expedient has only been employed, for the most part, with smaller pieces.

It is, therefore, the primary object of this invention to provide a novel furniture construction in which the seat and back members as well as the frame members are capable of being shipped in a disassembled form and are adapted for quick, simple and convenient assembly after shipment. When shipped in a compact, knocked-down state, the shipping cost is approximately one-half the cost of shipping the same piece fully assembled. Also, because of this compact packing, it is possible for the consumer to carry home in his own automobile several pieces of the furniture.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide arm and leg pieces which are interchangeable from one piece to another, thus making it very easy for the retailer to make up his own grouping, that is, from his own stock. He can thus readily assemble a sectional or three-piece sofa or a piece with no arms, with two arms, or with the right or left arm only. This type of construction therefore lends itself to mass production and greater increased efiiciency and lower cost.

Another object of the present invention is to provide furniture which because of its ease of assembly and disassembly can be re-upholstered and/or the frame refinished at a much lower cost than conventional furniture.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel end frame construction by bending or otherwise forming an elongated member into two floor engaging legs, a connecting member therebetween, and a brace member extending from the upper end of the rear leg to the connecting member.

Other objects and advantages will appear in connection with the following description and accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of a piece of furniture in its assembled state;

Figure 2 is an end view of the same piece of furniture showing the securing means between the seat and back portions and the frame;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a frame member; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a frame member.

Figure 5 is an end view of a piece of furniture embodying a modified frame member and showing the securing means between the seat and back portions and the frame;

Figure 6 is a plan view of the modified frame member; and

hired. States Patent 0 Figure 7 is a rear elevation of Fig. 5.

Reference is now made more in detail and by reference characters to the drawings, which illustrate two embodiments of my invention. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the invention is thereby intended and that various changes are contemplated as would ordinarily occur to one skilled in the furniture art.

Reference is first made to the embodiment shown in Figures 1-4. As can be seen in Figure l the sofa designated generally by the letter A has a back member 1, a seat member 2 and end frames 3. The back and seat members are preferably constructed of rigid wooden frames or the like and upholstered in any conventional manner.

Referring now to an end frame as seen best in Figure 4, the frame consists of an elongated member bent or otherwise formed to provide a generally vertical front floor engaging leg 4, a generally vertical rear leg 5, a diagonal member 6 connecting the upper end of leg 4- with the lower end of leg 5, and a brace 7 extending from the upper portion of leg 5 and secured as by Welding to diagonal member 6. A transverse member 8 interconnects leg 4 and brace 7 and is secured thereto as by welding. The transverse member 8 terminates in flattened portion 8a and longitudinally extending angle portion 9 having apertures 10 and 11 formed therein for purposes hereinafter described. Transverse member 8 is formed with a portion 23 which is bent horizontally inwardly from the axis extending from leg 4 to brace 7. Extending also in a longitudinal direction from the brace 7 are two flanges 12 and 13 containing apertures 14 and 15, respectively.

An arm member 16 is secured to transverse member 8 and extends upwardly therefrom terminating in a flattened transverse portion 17. This transverse portion 17 is apertured at 18 and 19 to receive securing members 20 and 21 for attaching an arm member 22 tosaid transverse portion 17.

As can be seen in Figures 1 and 2 the back member 1 is formed on an angle at its lower portion 24 and seat member 2 is also formed on an angle at its rearward end as at 25, so that in an assembled state the back and seat members fit snugly along these angularly formed portions. The seat member 2 is supported by the transverse member 8 and more particularly by the longitudinally struck out portions 9 and 23 and is attached thereto by bolts through the frame of seat member 2 and the apertures 10 and 11 of the transverse member it.

The back member 1 rests, as previously described, along the angular rear portion 25 of seat member 2 and is secured to end frame 3 by bolts or the like through the frame of back member 1 and the apertures 14 and 15' of the flanges 12 and 13 of supporting member 7".

It will be readily understood that with this type of construction a piece of furniture can be set up having no arm members by omitting members 16 from the end frames, or can be set up having either a right or left arm, or both.

Referring now to the embodiment shown in Figures 5 through 7, the frame consists of an elongated member 26 bent or otherwise formed to provide a generally vertical floor-engaging front leg 27, a generally vertical floorengaging rear leg 28 and a member 49 interconnecting the lower ends of legs 27 and 28. As can be seen from Figure 5, the connecting member 49 is bent at 31 to form a first portion 29 and a second portion 30. Extending from the upper end of leg 28 and fixed to connecting member 49 at 31 is a generally vertical brace member 32. As can be seen more particularly in Figure 7, brace member 32 has a struck-out portion 33, containing apertures 34 and 35 for purposes hereinafter described.

A transverse member 36 is fixed between the front leg 27, adjacent its upper end, and the brace member 32 ad- Patented Dec. 10, 1957' in Figure 5, supporting member 42 is fixed to the transverse member 36 while supporting member 43 is fixed to connecting member 29. For a more rigid construction, supporting member 43 may also be fixed as by welding to transverse member 36 at 44.

A back member and a seat member are supported by the above described frame member in a similar manner as described for attaching the seat and back member to the frame embodied in Figures 1 through 4. The Seat member is rigidly connected to transverse member 3.6 by means of bolts 45 and 46 extending through apertures 38 and 40, respectively, into threaded recesses in the frame of the seat member. Likewise the back member may be rigidly secured to frame member 32 as by bolts 4'7 and 48 extending through the apertures 34 and 35, respectively, into threaded recesses formed in the frame of the back member.

It should be understood that the frame members 3 and 26 of the two embodiments, which have been shown and described as elongated members made of wrought iron, have been so shown and described by way of illustration only and the parts which make up these members 3 and 26,, namely, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the first embodiment and 27, 28, 29, 30 and 32 of the second embodiment could be separate members joined together and could be finished in Wood, rattan, chromium plated, steel tubing, or a completely upholstered wooden arm as well as the wrought iron. Other changes which would occur to one skilled in the furniture art are also contemplated.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to e secu ed by Let ers Pa ent i 1. An article of furniture comprising generally rigid seat and back members, and external end frame members for supporting said seat and back members, said end frame members having floor engaging legs, a connecting member extending between said legs, a brace member extending from the upper end of one of said legs to said connecting member, a transverse member interconnecting one of said le s and said brace member and supporting said seat member, said back member being supported by said brace member said end frame members being wholly independent from each other and free of connection with each other except through said seat and back members.

2. The article as in claim 1 wherein said brace member directly supports said back member.

3. The article as in claim 1 wherein said transverse member includes laterally displaced portions extending beneath said seat member for supporting same.

4. An article of furniture comprising self-supporting seat and back sections and independent unitary leg frames detachably connected to the ends of said seat and back sections, each of said leg frames having a front leg, a rear leg, a connecting member extending between said legs,

and a brace member extending from the upper end of said rear leg to said connecting member, said seat section being supported from the front legs and brace members of the leg frames and said back section being supported from the brace members above said seat section.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 148,956 Rhodes Mar. 9, 1948 D. 155,013 Kipp Aug. 30, 1949 612,988 Crandall Oct. 25, 1898 1,885,630 Ronan Nov. 1, 1932 2,142,662 Todd Jan. 3, 1939 2,575,773 Simoneaux Nov. 20, 1951 2,618,316 Way Nov. 18, 1952 

